War Memorial

I had a high school teacher whose behavior could be erratic, to put it mildly. He could be a genial, funny, wisecracking sort of guy. But he could lose his temper with a swift intensity that looked damned scary to a clueless freshman.

Any little thing could do it. I do not remember exactly how I set it off the time I was the target. It might have been something like not responding quickly enough when he called on me. Maybe I was grinning at one of his remarks. In five seconds, he went from calm instructor to red-faced and furious, nose-to-nose with me, screaming at the top of his lungs that I’d better not disrespect him again. When he was done, he continued the lesson as if nothing had happened.

Another time he went around the class asking us about our fathers’ military service. He himself had seen combat in the Marines. Where had our fathers served?

“Army,” said one kid.

“You dad was smarter than me,” said my teacher. “Next?”

“Navy,” said the kid next to me.

“Smarter still.” My teacher was on a roll now. He pointed at me. “What about your father?”

“Coast Guard,” I said.

“Smartest guy of all.” Even the most clueless of freshmen knew that this wasn’t a compliment. And indeed, it was a launching point for a five-minute, acerbically humorous riff on easy tours of duty, as compared to other (unspecified) nastier assignments.

I never mentioned any of this to my parents at the time. I wasn’t programmed to bring problems like that home — it was our business to take what the teachers dished out. But also, it was easy to see that the guy had issues with a capital I. The encounter angered but also disturbed me; I wondered what he was really expressing with it.

And years later, after I’d graduated and heard that he’d committed suicide, I was not terribly surprised. We didn’t have a name for it, but even back in the 1970s we were starting to figure out that you could come home from a war only to find the war came home with you.

Memorial Day is when we remember those killed in combat, but I’d also like to remember the ones who came home and never talked about it, who cracked jokes and blew their stacks for no good reason, the ones whom the wars claim again and again, years after the fact. I wish them peace and honor their service.

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3 Comments on “War Memorial”

This one really touched home.A co-worker of mine lost her son a few months ago, a year after returning home from several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.A overdose of pain meds.-accidental,on purpose?Who really knows.Wars keep on killing long after the gunfire ends.Something we all need to remember.Thank you for the reminder of all the costs.

I like your post, well put- war does take casualties well after tour of duty as some of us have seen. I didn’t post any Memorial Day posts @ my family page this year, but in past have. My dad was a Merchant Marine, coast Guard also. Thank you for reminding us to remember…